A GRASSROOTS theatre company is showcasing exciting new theatre in Reading, supporting theatre makers from in and around the town.
Lockdown Projections is bringing its latest project to the Rising Sun Arts Centre, supporting budding theatre performers and makers through a grassroots rehearsal process.
The project, Lucky Dip, is a collection of sketches, diatribes, and performance poetry born from the theatre company’s first Stories in the Stones project.
The crowdfunded project will showcase fresh theatre talent by providing them a space to devise their own work and perform it while sharing the profits from the venture, giving them a vital foot-up in an increasingly inaccessible industry.
Lockdown Projections began with a debut show by creator Rachel Heritage and fellow REED College alumnus Poppy Bowness.
Rachel graduated from Reed College in 2020: “But the lockdowns obviously spoiled a lot of the auditions I was going to take.
“So I started the theatre company, as a few of the other Reedies and I had worked on digital projects when we could.
“As soon as live shows were back, Poppy and I wrote a play and put it on in Palmer Park, which was risky at the time as to whether we would be allowed.”
Since, Rachel has put together a one-woman show at both Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Camden Fringe.
“It’s incredibly hard to do if you’re working class due to the nature of having to work to live, where you’re expected to have years of training and have dedicated your life to something which doesn’t make a lot of money.
“We can’t sit and wait by the phone for jobs, we have to make our own stuff, and that’s where Lucky Dip comes from.”
Rachel explains that she’s using the platform “for other people to introduce them to devising and making their own work.
“It’s both a professional credit and a profit share between all of them.”
As for those that she has worked with on the project, Rachel said: “They’re fantastic, really brilliant.
“There are some members who also went to REED after me too, and I’m incredibly proud of everyone.”
Lucky Dip is showing at The Rising Sun Arts Centre on Thursday, August 31, at 7pm.
Tickets are available via: whatsonreading.com/venues/lockdown-projections/whats-on/lucky-dip
